Finland’s PS executive board sacks one member from the party

After the decision by the Perussuomalaiset (PS) executive board on Saturday to sacrifice Tommi Rautio, it is pretty clear that Timo Soini’s party has lowered the bar even lower. It is perfectly fine today to be a PS member as long as you don’t condone violence publicly.

You can, however, be a PS member and belong to a neo-Nazi association and even be fined for hate speech and defaming a religion never mind making the usual populist statements. You can be openly homophobic and spread urban tales about the Romany minority on Facebook and still be a PS member.

The violence and hostility that we commonly see coming from the PS is as sinister as the far-right thread on Facebook that condoned a cold-blooded killing. It is upholding a culture of hatred, mistrust and constant war against immigrants, Finns with international backgrounds, minorities, even women.

Let’s admit it, if Soini and the PS national board think that only one person should be sacked from the party after offering us scandal after scandal splashed on Finnish tabloids every month, it proves what we have been saying on Migrant Tales all along: Cut off racism and far-right nationalism from the PS and the party will deflate into insignificance.

In Magrant Tales’ opinion, Soini is no different from the party’s far-right wing led by PS MP Jussi Halla-aho.

The PS leader knows how to sugar-coat the same anti-immigrant and anti-immigration message.

There is a very good analysis on Savon Sanomat today (in Finnish) that explains why the PS’ popularity has suffered a significant fall in the polls.